THE YELLOW RAIL 237 



pie which is constructed of rails is a most suc- 

 culent morsel, a very different creation from a 

 pie built from street-scavenging English spar- 

 rows, which is not uncommonly the material 

 used when the flight of soras has been small. 



THE YELLOW RAIL. 



(Porzana noveboracensis.) 



This pretty little fellow is a visitor along the 

 eastern coast and in some of the inland marshes 

 of eastern North America. The range of its 

 migration is extensive, reaching from Hudson 

 bay to the Gulf of Mexico or even further south. 

 Nowhere in all this stretch of country is it 

 abundant, yet while most naturalists seem to 

 think it a rare visitor in New England, espe- 

 cially so in the northern parts, there is some 

 reason to believe that it is more numerous here 

 than is generally supposed. Indeed, from my 

 own experience I should say that it is more 

 common here than the Virginia rail, for within 

 the last three years I have known of the cap- 

 ture of possibly fifty specimens of the Yellow 

 Rail near Portland, Me., and have myself taken 



